This book provides Newt Gingrich's early rationale for running for president in 2012. This book was published in May 2010; he published a later book in June 2011, after formally announcing. His later rationale more specifically targeted President Obama; this earlier rationale is more philosophical, about how he came to his decision to run. The later rationale, A Nation Like No Other, is separately reviewed and excerpted.

This book explains, in Speaker Gingrich's view, why he left Congress in 1999 and why he decided to run for president in 2012. Let's start with why he's running for president. Gingrich claims that the "secular-socialists" have taken over America, and that America's very existence is threatened if the Left stays in power:

The left-wing Democrats who currently control the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and many state capitols are committed to a secular-socialist ideology that is alien to America's history and traditions.

Traditional America values hard work, entrepreneurship, innovation, and merit-based upward mobility. But the secular-socialist machine rewards its members, punishes 'overachievers,' kills job by over-taxing small businesses, and even exploits your death to tax the savings you hope to pass on to your children and grandchildren." (p. 2)

That term "secular-socialist" is new to most voters (and to most pundits, including me!). But it's no accident; Gingrich explains, "The term 'secular-socialist machine' is the only honest way to describe the Left's ideology and the way they operate today" (p. 4). And he devotes the titles of six chapters (and most of their contents) to explaining what exactly he means by "secular-socialist machine" (basically, he means "Obama", as in the title of chapter 5, "The Secular-Socialist Machine's Heath Bill Disaster"). Happily, Gingrich has discontinued use of this term on the presidential campaign trail, and has limited that theme to bashing Saul Alinsky, whom Gingrich describes as the founder of secular-socialism, and Obama's mentor.

Let's return now to Gingrich's explanation of his departure from power. Gingrich opens the book with his explanation of why he departed Congress, citing that he had finished Saving America (as the title of this book indicates):

"After the victory of freedom over Communist tyranny... and of American pride over the malaise and cynicism of the 1970s, I fully expected America to follow an upward curve of consistent improvement. I did not expect the Left to ignore the lessons of history and move further into ideological extremism.

"After leaving Congress in 1999 with a balanced budget and a booming economy, I certainly did not foresee Republican failure so vast that it allowed left-wing radicals to take over the House, Senate, and Presidency. America as we know it is now facing a mortal threat." (pp. 1-2)

Well! Gingrich is a professor of history and regularly chides his audience to study history. Anyone studying the history of Gingrich's descent from the Speakership and resignation from Congress might have a different opinion than the one Gingrich cites. Yes, Gingrich was responsible for the Republican House victory of 1994, and participated, with President Bill Clinton, in balancing the budget and setting the framework for a booming economy. But he implies that he left Congress in 1999 at the top of his game -- and that's just not historically accurate. He left amid scandal and failure, and he resigned rather than retired. All three of those are ignored by Gingrich's opening statement above, and are further ignored for the entirety of this book. So we'll elaborate:

Scandal: In 1997, Gingrich was charged by the House Ethics Committee with 84 counts of ethics violations. After an investigation, Gingrich was reprimanded on one count -- the first time in the history of the U. S. House that a Speaker had been reprimanded -- and fined $300,000 for misuse of tax-exempt donations. The ethics vote in the House was 395-28, meaning that many Republicans voted for the reprimand.

Failure: Gingrich's popularity fell dramatically after the House impeached President Clinton (Dec. 1998) but the Senate failed to convict Clinton of wrongdoing (Feb. 1999). Pres. Clinton was seen as a victim of a witch hunt with Gingrich as one of the leading hunters; Clinton gained popularity as a result, and Gingrich and the Republicans lost popularity. The loss of Republican popularity was widely seen as the reason for the House Republican electoral loss in November 1998 (the GOP lost seats but maintained a majority). Gingrich took responsibility for the electoral loss and announced his resignation shortly after the election.

Resignation: Gingrich resigned not only from the Speakership but also from his House seat. The political pressure at the time forced him to resign the Speakership, but he had just won re-election as the Representative from Georgia's 6th House district. Because he resigned his House seat as well, the state of Georgia had to run a special election (which was held in Feb. 2008 and won by Johnny Isakson, now a Senator). Gingrich forced Georgia to waste millions of dollars running the special election, and also left his district without representation for the intervening period. In general, resigning from an elected office is considered immoral -- recall the furor over Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor after losing the Vice Presidential election.

Those are not actions which should be summarized as "leaving Congress in 1999 with a balanced budget and a booming economy". They are better summarized as "unexpectedly leaving Congress in 1999 with a failed impeachment and a history of scandal." The only reason that Gingrich is not more severely chided with these historical facts is that enough years have passed in between that people forget the details. We should listen to Gingrich chiding us and remember history -- specifically, we should remember HIS history!

Government ReformArnold Schwarzenegger: 2005: Four ballot propositions all lost by wide margins.
Barack Obama: Used signing statements, like Bush, 17 times in 2009.
Charles Rangel: Leave of absence as committee chair for ethics investigation.
Newt Gingrich: Replace Washington controls with American ideals.
Newt Gingrich: Passing massive debt to next generation is immoral.